It’s all a scam by the oil companies to sell the leftovers they have when they make petrol anyway

Buy synthetic then, that’ll show us. 😛

16 year old Toyota Yaris @120,000 miles ……..bought from new never had a garage service, just annual oil and filter changes ( fully synthetic )and consumerables Brake pads tyres 1 exhaust.

just look at the service schedule in hand book and many items are just inspect or check ….why pay someone to do this when you can DIY ?
Previous car was a Mazda which was just the same……
The policy of buying quality product in the first place pays off….just would not chance this with a Vauxhall/ Citreon/ Peugeot/ Ford / Fiat

Sister-in-law and husband NEVER have their cars serviced, not short of cash, very safety conscious (two young boys to carry around), two/three year old cars – don’t understand it, must cut their residuals to nothing, money into a black hole.

My ten year old Corsa didn’t get serviced at last MOT for the first time ever, but then it had a split sump and the oil and filter got changed for that. Just gonna keep it MOT’d and change oil and filters myself, I reckon.

A distinctly unpleasant neighbour doesn’t service either of his or his wifes cars, hasn’t done for 7 or 8 years. New tyres when they needed it, and repairs when it broke or failed an MOT. That was about it.

Made me laugh when the AWD system lunched itself. Repair bill was going to be almost more than the car was worth. So he had the whole lot ripped out (at not much cost, but still a few hundred quid.)

They bodged that too, damaged a seal somewhere/somehow. Lunched its engine about 2 weeks later.
The other car, she took when she left him. Had it serviced. Absolutely nothing wrong with it.

And a relative has just had to have a new engine in his 12 month old car, the dealers didn’t do the oil check/change/filter they were meant to. So it lunched both turbos and blew bits through the entire engine. Needless to say, they’ll be picking up the bill. If his lawyer gets his way, they’ll be buying the car back too. (It’s not the first major issue he’s had with the car!)

Don’t service it!
You’ll be keeping me in a job! (Roadside repair bloke for a well known yellow motoring organisation)
Seriously, get it serviced.
Don’t use a main dealer (unless it’s under warranty), find a good local independent garage.
I can never understand how people will happily spend several thousand pounds buying a car, but then baulk at spending a couple of hundred servicing it.
Servicing makes your car last longer, be more reliable and more valuable when you want to sell it.
Ask around, find a good local garage and get it booked in.
Or, don’t service it – I can offer you a good price on breakdown cover – you’ll need it!

Don’t use a main dealer (unless it’s under warranty), find a good local independent garage.

That’s the trick, isn’t it? 🙂

We used to go to a local place, until once I told them it was time for a major service, and they sort of shrugged and said ‘well it’s just an oil and filter change really’, for £100. I can do it myself for £40 and it’s easier.

kwik fit may be cheaper than you can buy the oil/filter for.

but at least you know if you bought it, its the right filter/oil and more importantly its a good quality filter and oil.

I do my own servicing as it takes less time than cutting the grass to do a basic service and gives me a good opportunity to get under the car and look at the moving bits , check moving bits for wear/corrosion. Then theres also the taking the wifes car to work once a month at least to listen for odditys.

Some MOT fails ive seen mates come back with – i would be embarrassed to have driven to the test center.

[massive generalisation]i wouldnt trust kwikfit to top up my washer fluid im afraid based on experiances and my mates stories as an employee. [/massive generalisation]

New shocks, brakes, filters, fluids and cam belt done on my 26 year old 205. Wouldn’t let a garage touch it though.

molgrips – Member

Don’t use a main dealer (unless it’s under warranty), find a good local independent garage.

That’s the trick, isn’t it?

We used to go to a local place, until once I told them it was time for a major service, and they sort of shrugged and said ‘well it’s just an oil and filter change really’, for £100. I can do it myself for £40 and it’s easier.

Well it is, and it isn’t – the service book will tell you what needs replacing and for the most part it’s oil and filter – that is bare minimum ‘service’ levels – make sure the engine isn’t going to be damaged or completely fail due to low, no or old oil.

It doesn’t tell you that the rear shocks are borked, or the power steering fluid is low/old/leaking, or the brake fluid has absorbed so much moisture is technically water now etc etc. So unless you’re a a decent home mechanic who can really inspect all the parts of your car you’re no better than the guy who only cares at MOT time that his car meets the very basic level of functionality and safety to be legally road worthy.

A main dealer or decent indie will check all those things, mostly because if you look at the inspection portion of your service book it’s a pretty long list of stuff. A back-street “make it run, or get you through the test” garage probably won’t because their customers don’t call for it.

We used to go to a local place, until once I told them it was time for a major service, and they sort of shrugged and said ‘well it’s just an oil and filter change really’, for £100. I can do it myself for £40 and it’s easier.

In fairness, “major service” is a misnomer usually. On mine it’s 30,000 miles, and involves the spark plugs and air filter, 30 minutes and and about £40 in parts, but somehow justifies a £200 premium over the annual oil change.

I do trust my local garage though, took it in for the cambelt and they didn’t change the spark plugs (and said so) because they’d inspected them and they were fine, which is fair enough, I only fitted them about 10 months ago, nice to know they weren’t doing work for the sake of it. Then again, spark plugs are cheap enough I did question the logic of putting old ones back even if they are easy to reach on the C-max.

It doesn’t tell you that the rear shocks are borked, or the power steering fluid is low/old/leaking, or the brake fluid has absorbed so much moisture is technically water now etc etc. So unless you’re a a decent home mechanic who can really inspect all the parts of your car you’re no better than the guy who only cares at MOT time that his car meets the very basic level of functionality and safety to be legally road worthy.

A main dealer or decent indie will check all those things, mostly because if you look at the inspection portion of your service book it’s a pretty long list of stuff. A back-street “make it run, or get you through the test” garage probably won’t because their customers don’t call for it.

The checklist is pretty self explanatory though

check suspension components and hubs for wear, that’ll be jack it up, wiggle the wheels, spin them and look for oil leaks from the dampers.

check for corrosion – is anything important turning orange.

check condition of auxiliary belt – check it’s less than 100,000 miles old and look for cracks

Check brake fluid boiling point (or just stick the EZ bleed on it and replace it).

Check for fault codes – plug in £2.55 bit of plastic to the OBD connector and look at what pops up on my phone.

If you can change the oil, checking everything else is pretty straightforward.

Checking fluid levels FFS, that’s something you should be doing monthly at least, not waiting for it’s annual trip to the garage! Are you my girlfriend?

My first ful time job was a mechanic in a garage, we had a bonus system.

Tracking 50p ( but unless you did 50 per week you got nothing).
Tyres £2 to £3 depending on price.
Brakes pads £2
Brake shoes £3
Shock Absorbers £5 ( the daddy of all sales)
This was the early 80’s btw so a considerable additional amount to your average greasy monkey.

You can imagine the number if cars that went out with new shocks and dirt knocked off the track rod ends.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

We used to go to a local place, until once I told them it was time for a major service, and they sort of shrugged and said ‘well it’s just an oil and filter change really’, for £100. I can do it myself for £40 and it’s easier.

In fairness, “major service” is a misnomer usually. On mine it’s 30,000 miles, and involves the spark plugs and air filter, 30 minutes and and about £40 in parts, but somehow justifies a £200 premium over the annual oil change.

I do trust my local garage though, took it in for the cambelt and they didn’t change the spark plugs (and said so) because they’d inspected them and they were fine, which is fair enough, I only fitted them about 10 months ago, nice to know they weren’t doing work for the sake of it. Then again, spark plugs are cheap enough I did question the logic of putting old ones back even if they are easy to reach on the C-max.

It doesn’t tell you that the rear shocks are borked, or the power steering fluid is low/old/leaking, or the brake fluid has absorbed so much moisture is technically water now etc etc. So unless you’re a a decent home mechanic who can really inspect all the parts of your car you’re no better than the guy who only cares at MOT time that his car meets the very basic level of functionality and safety to be legally road worthy.

A main dealer or decent indie will check all those things, mostly because if you look at the inspection portion of your service book it’s a pretty long list of stuff. A back-street “make it run, or get you through the test” garage probably won’t because their customers don’t call for it.

The checklist is pretty self explanatory though

check suspension components and hubs for wear, that’ll be jack it up, wiggle the wheels, spin them and look for oil leaks from the dampers.

check for corrosion – is anything important turning orange.

check condition of auxiliary belt – check it’s less than 100,000 miles old and look for cracks

Check brake fluid boiling point (or just stick the EZ bleed on it and replace it).

Check for fault codes – plug in £2.55 bit of plastic to the OBD connector and look at what pops up on my phone.

If you can change the oil, checking everything else is pretty straightforward.

Checking fluid levels FFS, that’s something you should be doing monthly at least, not waiting for it’s annual trip to the garage! Are you my girlfriend?

I can’t really tell if you agree with me, or are arguing – but yes, if those things are easy to you then you won’t have a problem, but if you just change the oil and filter assuming this will magically keep the whole car working, then you probably will.

Don’t use a main dealer (unless it’s under warranty), find a good local independent garage.

+1

We use ServiceLine, they’re about 100m from where the OP works.

Our cars have a yearly oil+filters service plus the garage is told to do whatever else is needed (just call me first).

And while my car is only worth about £2k and I am looking at changing it this year it’s just had its service. It also needed 2 new front springs and 2 rear shocks – so now actually rides/handles properly again and the suspension is quiet.

It doesn’t tell you that the rear shocks are borked, or the power steering fluid is low/old/leaking, or the brake fluid has absorbed so much moisture is technically water now etc etc

I don’t think any of the cheap places will check brake fluid, and I bet they don’t cycle the ABS pump to clear that out of old fluid as well. As for shocks and suspension components – I’ll know about those from driving it.

I used to change the oil in a previous car but now CBA

Annual service done with the MOT on each car

Wifes little Fiat 500 has never cost more than £100 to service while it was under warranty. It was on the low mileage service schedule which was a pain as getting it serviced every 5000mls felt OTT.

Anyhow, now that its out of warranty (4yrs old) i sent it to the same mechanic who has done the previous 3 who now works at a Peugeot main dealer. He serviced it as per requirements (Oil etc) plus he fitted the higher spec spark plugs i supplied (I want to keep the car and £25 on better plugs makes sense).

Total bill including an MOT (Required nothing) was £70

Got told the front pads may need changing next year, possibly not.

All good 🙂

plus he fitted the higher spec spark plugs i supplied (I want to keep the car and £25 on better plugs makes sense).

Genuine question, why?

I’ve always used the OEM Ford plugs in both our cars, don’t cost £25 let alone incrementally £25 more, and last 30,000miles (and still look fine when they come out).

Same here, but I’m on 171k 😛

Years ago I had a Mk3 Cavalier that I didn’t look after. One evening I came back to it to go home and there was a fairly large puddle of oil underneath it. Unable to do much about it I drove it home anyway, 45 mins down the M4. For the last few miles the red oil warning light was on.

When I got home the whole side of the car was covered with oil 😆 On inspection, the problem was that the oil filter had rusted through, because it was so long since it had been changed. New oil & filter and it was right as rain. Tough as old boots those cars. Until the sills & rear arches rusted through.

Right, I have a free car, its a POS gutless, smelly Ashtray about 12 years old, its probably not even worth £300, but I only put fuel in it, and on average do about 10,000 miles a year.

It was 4 years until I realised it had not been serviced and I only realised this when I worked out it did 10mpg on a run, so checked the oil to realise it had nothing! I have been using/abusing it for about 8 years, in that time the only things that needed doing were: backbox & new discs/pads. Last year I did have to replace the headlights as they failed the MOT. I gave it a service after 4 years and it made absolutely no difference.

Oh I did blow the headgasket and continued to drive it for 8 months before I could be bothered to fix it. I replaced the HG, I was a little suspicious of the HG as it didn’t seem right… 1 day later the whole cooling system had turned to mayo, I am not exaggerating, the whole cooling system was as thick as mayo, radiator, oil galleries/block, header tank, etc. I towed it to the farm and used a steam cleaner to clean/flush out the system. That was 2 years ago, I fixed it and haven’t touched it since. It is the cleanest engine bay on a shitty Ashtray ever!

I have no intentions of giving it a service and it will die before I service it again.

Believe it or not I am a car guy! 😆 No honest, I am a serious car guy, lets face it if you had a shitty Astra that is worthless, would you spend time on it, or would you spend time on more serious cars. 😉 One of my cars gets an oil change nearly every month and possibly gearbox oil and hydraulic fluids, depending on how hot everything got.

If I had a new car, under 5 years old, I’m sure as hell I would get it serviced annually or on mileage, whatever comes first. If it was a car I was going to keep until its worthless, then I would decide when it needs doing.

lets face it if you had a shitty Astra that is worthless, would you spend time on it,

If I was ragging it around a field, no. If I was driving it across the country, yes. It might not be worth anything, but you’ll probably save a bit on petrol and have less hassle if you look after it a bit. Or if it’s not worth a service scrap it.

I do remember thinking long and hard about new tyres on a few cars, as there was always the possibility of it failing an imminent MOT for an unknown and expensive problem and getting binned.

£600 a year in consumables and servicing is only two lease payments on something newer

Its also the value of the car so if it lasts for two years you have saved enough to buy a better car. If it does not then you have lost nothing.

If the car is not new and a service adds nothing to the vale then its pretty hard to argue you are saving money on a cheap shitty car, even when it is a great cheap shitty car. I have saved 3 k on you over the last 5 years – ok I have bought some stuff so lets call it 2 k.

He wasnt trying to argue he was saving money.

His poit was that servicing the car is a very small cost in comparisonto payingfor the car

Meanwhile my well maaintained 12 year old car got a fresh 12 month ticket today with only a new horn required. It worked on every other push but tester wasnt happy.

And because its in good fettle id have no issues driving it across country. Not everything is about cost- ive sat at the side of thr motorway because my mate addopts a just too late maintainance scheme. I assume he saved a fortune up till the point he paid to be recovered off the motorway after he welded the pistons to the block

Worked with a contractor who used to run an old cheap car, etc.

Was funny when he rang up as he couldn’t come in as the car had broken down, considering the daily rate he was on and therefore the money the car was actually costing him.

lets face it if you had a shitty Astra that is worthless, would you spend time on it

If I needed a running car, and it started off decent, then of course I would. Deliberately destroying it by not bothering with £50 of oil and filters is stupid. It’s a waste of a car, you’ll have to go and buy another, at the least.

If it’s already wrecked, well then I’d not take it in the first place since it’s likely to break down.

The monetary value of a car only reflects what others will pay for it. It is NOT indicative of the actual value of a car that will reliably get you around. A battered old MX5 will fetch two grand and could be a liability; a 1.2 Corsa with a dented door could be £300 and run for years trouble free. Which is worth more to the person who needs to get to work?

My sister used to have a B5 Passat, she thought it was ‘on its last legs’ because the central locking didn’t work and the windows would open and close on their own. I told her to unplug the plenum drain which is the simple fix to the problems, but she just couldn’t be bothered. She thought the car was worthless when really it was fine it just needed 10 minutes of attention. She scrapped it – what a waste of a car.

I assume he saved a fortune up till the point he paid to be recovered off the motorway after he welded the pistons to the block

I had a similar story, slight variation, changed the oil but never changed the cam belt.

and last 30,000miles

seriously? IIRC the ones we fit from new are either 150000 or 180000km. Don’t even get looked at until something like 90000 unless they throw up a fault code.

but never changed the cam belt.

just had the cambelt, alternator belt and balance shaft done, and the associated pulleys, etc, plus center and rear exhaust boxes, a service and an MOT.

Not cheap and I only do about 2-3K miles a year in it.

At an independant specialist, obviously.

Is it true? In France etc they keep their cars, don’t focus on residuals v repair costs and just keep them running?

Here it’s ‘oh the suspension knocks, it must be worn out’. Rather than have a bushes suspension refresh they’ll buy s brand new car instead as it’s ‘new’.

Tbh hora.

I can see why folk think like that.

Im lucky in that i know how my hands work and like working with them my cars dont take much effort or cash to keep healthy.

My local mot tester didnt like my intermittant horn today- which passed last year…..but its a bad wire in the column- i know that.

Because its the wifes car and im going offshore i paid them 100 quid to have a horn button installed in the dash and a cable running forward to the horn.

A generic switch from the factors would be a 10er absolute tops. Imo.

Some wire- say a 5er being generous.

An hours labour…..( thats what im billed for from them)

But the convienance of it being done and ready to go for the wife tomorrow while im away. Handy as ****.

Now i see why leases look attractive if people are getting hammered for menial tasks.

Had my Golf pretty much 18 months – it’s rocketed from 15 – 40k in that time. Last service was beginning of March 15…just realised that at the end of April (now) I’ve stuck 20k **** miles on it in 14 months!! I now have to get it serviced as the bloody thing now keeps telling me it’s now due….ggrrrrrrrr – already!

Rather than have a bushes suspension refresh they’ll buy s brand new car instead as it’s ‘new’.

Not sure who you hang out with. Maybe it’s where you get your serial bike habit from? Why one of my bikes isn’t ‘right’ I try and learn about it to sort it out.

Get it serviced. Why drive a mail that could let you down on a dark, cold wet drive back from Wales on a Sunday evening?

We got ours serviced, and a week later it did just this. Having a service doesn’t mean things don’t go wrong; in my case a collapsed thrust bearing.

I ran a mondeo estate from 130k to 195k with minimal servicing – started off ok, but towards the end I did nothing – no oil change for 25k, no cambelt change at all (must have been on at least 90k miles). The value of the car was simply less than the cost of a service (in fact, less than the cot of a few litres of oil at the end).

Never skipped a beat, but I wouldn’t reccomend it. In bangernomics you can probably skip every other service if you want, depending on how the cars driven (ie not around town all the time), otherwise keep to book

Never bothered with regular servicing on our cars, we are towards the lower end of the car market >£3k cars. Neverrhad any problems as a result either, the only breakdowns we’ve ever had have been things which would probably not have been picked up at a service (in fact one of the breakdowns was in rural Ireland and I had my mechanic give the car a going over before we went)breakdown recovery is money well spent.
My motorbike gets so little use it’s never had a service since I bought it c6 years ago, seems to be running in pretty much the same state as when I bought it :-)(joys of a £600 kawasaki ownership)

We got ours serviced, and a week later it did just this. Having a service doesn’t mean things don’t go wrong;

OF course not, but it makes it much less likely!

Right, I have a free car, its a POS gutless, smelly Ashtray about 12 years old, its probably not even worth £300, but I only put fuel in it, and on average do about 10,000 miles a year.

Conversely my focus is almost that old, serviced on the driveway every year, not cost me a penny otherwise, and still looks presentable, doesn’t burn a drop of oil, never blown a head gasket, does more than 10mpg and doesn’t have a cooling system full of mayo.

Swings and roundabouts.